Winter cooking with Gousto

There’s something about winter for me that makes me want to burrow down and get all cosy. I love it when the girls come home from school and we all pop our PJ’s on and snuggle under a blanket and watch a film. I love to light the candles and turn on the fairy lights and generally make every where feel all snug and warm. The same goes for what we cook too. Whereas in summer we are big fans of light meals, BBQ’s or salads, in the winter we love a more hearty meal. A meal that makes you feel all warm inside after eating it and which is really comforting after being in and out all day in the cold.

You may remember that I worked with Gousto a few months ago on my blog (you can read the blog post here). Since then we have tried Gousto a couple more times and enjoyed their delicious varied meals. I am sure you are familiar with food subscription services, but for us they really do work. It’s embarrassing to admit but we hugely get stuck in a rut when it comes to food. We have two very fussy little girls so when we find something they like we tend to stick to it. So many times either Jon or I have been in the supermarket and we ring the other one to ask what we should have for dinner that evening and we just feel so uninspired as to what we are going to eat. We are also one of those families who promise themselves they are going to meal plan and do a weekly food shop online but then life gets in the way and we end up going to the supermarket every day- which is both time consuming and also a much more expensive way of doing it. Gousto is great because you can order online via the website or app in the comfort of your own home.

Gousto is pretty much perfect for people like us. It is aimed at people who want to cook and enjoy good food together but don’t always have the time, ingredients or know-how to do it well, delivering simple ways to enjoy the joys of cooking. You can choose what you want, cook it with confidence and enjoy sharing it together with others. It has also massively helped us when it comes to getting out of the rut of eating the same thing every night and it has also really helped when it comes to encouraging our fussy eaters to try more things

Gousto can deliver up to 4 meals for the week with the ingredients and recipes all there ready to make and you can choose which recipes you want to go in each box. For our box this time we decided on-

Annabel’s Chicken Tikka Masala (Gousto have just launched a collaboration with family food goddess Annabel Karmel which is pretty exciting! These meals have been tried and tested and are nutritionally balanced)

Bonfire Night Sausage Sarnie

Hoisin Pulled Chicken and sesame noodles

Hungarian Pork and Pepper Goulash

The box arrived and we laid out the ingredients as always to have a look at what we had got. I love seeing the colour and freshness of all the vegetables, and yet again was so impressed with how Gousto portion out all the ingredients for you, even down to the soy sauce and tomato paste- it takes the hassle out of measuring ingredients plus of course eliminates waste and over eating. Having all the ingredients there and ready for you means cooking delicious meals from scratch some how doesn’t feel as daunting, especially to a not particularly confident cook like myself.

For our first meal we settled down to try the Hungarian Pork and Pepper Goulash which is really similar to something else we cook, but with pork rather than chicken and more cooking from scratch rather than a sauce. The girls absolutely loved it.

We then decided to have the Hoisin Pulled Chicken and Sesame Noodles for a lunch time hearty meal instead (don’t you sometimes just want to be warmed up in winter?) and I think this was Jon and I’s favourite of the bunch. My sister happened to be over on her lunch break and she had already had her lunch but tasted ours and liked it so much she had a bowl to herself. It was so quick and easy to make and tasted delicious. This little boy is such a better eater than his sisters were, but even he surprised me, he loved the little chillies. He had another bowl after his because he enjoyed it so much. This is where Gousto is so great as it was something that we wouldn’t have thought to cook at home, but now we will.

I think however our family favourite meal had to be Annabel’s Chicken Tikka Masala. We are massive curry fans anyway but this one was mild enough so the girls weren’t constantly repeating that it was too hot and it was also packed with veggies such as butternut squash. As a treat we teamed ours with a naan bread and some poppadoms and it really was a meal I imagine we will cook over and over again. Every single little person finished theirs completely.

As we mentioned in our last post, we are really impressed with Gousto and just how much it helps a slightly disorganised, time poor family such as ourselves. Whenever we have had a Gousto box week we really feel like we have eaten well and tried new things. It really helps us step out of our comfort zone and know that we have fed our family well balanced and delicious meals. There are lots of recipes to choose each week and I am normally so hungry once I have picked out which meals we would like, as every meal looks delicious from the photos on the website.

They also have flexible free delivery dates and time slots (they deliver seven days a week) to fit in with your lifestyle and you can pause or stop your subscription at any time which I think is really important because you might be going away on holiday or having a tougher month money wise, and it is reassuring to know you can pause or stop if you need to. Speaking of price, for a family box for four it works out at just £2.98 per serving and £47.75 per box, which when you take into account all you are doing is clicking yes to a recipe and then having it all delivered to your door ready to cook, is really good value. Plus as a little added extra 93% of their packaging is recyclable or biodegradable

It just really suits us a family- it helps us get out of our comfort zone, it helps the children try new things, it saves us time and above all it is just enjoyable to cook each evening. Sitting round the table as a family is something that is really important to me and we try and do it at least four times a week. Gousto really helps us all enjoy food and dinners together.

W

NB: If you would like to try Gousto they have given my readers an amazing discount of 50% off their first and second box. There are more details here.

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Comments

Oh this sounds great and nice to have a recipe and all the ingredients sent to the door when we are so busy this time of year to even think what to cook or what to buy. I will have to check them out. I have tried others but haven’t heard of this one. Looks like it went down a treat.